UK artist, FKA Twigs debut album “LP 1” will be released on August 12. On Monday, she released the video for the first single “Two Weeks” and it is phenomenal. If for no other reason than it’s use of minimalism.

In 2010, Ryan Leslie lost a laptop which had unreleased music on it. As an artist, producer and songwriter it meant a lot of money and creations, swept away in the wind; so Ryan Leslie posted a video on YouTube offering $20,000 for the return of his laptop.

Nobody came forward, so he pumped the offer to $1 million. Surprise, someone said, “I’ll take that"and he got his laptop back. Ryan Leslie didn’t pay the reward though, he said he couldn’t recover the music from the hard drive.

The man, Armin Augstein took Ryan Leslie to court and on Thursday, Nov. 30 a jury returned the judgement: Ryan Leslie has to pay the $1 million that he said he would.

Yesterday, Alicia Keys debuted the video for her hot as fire single, “Girl on Fire” on 106 and Park. Asked for some background on the song, an excited Alicia Keys said, “The evolution of “Girl on Fire” came from me wanting to always be able to declare that I’m a Girl on Fire. Sometimes we don’t always feel like that. Sometimes things get difficult. But even in a world that’s filled with catastrophe, we not backing down and we got our head in the cloud.”

Angell Conwell, Carl Payne, and Letoya Leckett were cast in the Gospel Music Channel’s “For Richer or Poorer” TV mini-series, which filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, over the weekend.
More about that at Wilm on Film, “Stars descend on Wilmington to film gospel TV series”
Letoya Luckett tweeted that shot from her makeup chair..
Angell and Carl posed in a corner, during a break.

Brandy is back with the video for “Put it Down”, her collaboration with Chris Brown. Directed by Hype Williams, it’s splashed with vibrant colors and the high gloss slickness that a singer on Brandy’s level is accustomed to. A few weeks ago Brandy was on The Skorpion Show talking about this video; she said she had to put in some work to keep up with Chris Brown’s dance moves, but any of that awkwardness never hit tape.

In case you missed it, Brandy was recently a guest on The Skorpion Show (video posted yesterday.) She talked about her new album being reflective of who she is today: more experienced in life and reflective about who, where and what things mean. It has given her a new energy. So on her new album, she didn’t want to hold anything back.

“I’m just at the point in my life where I want to take chances. I just don’t want to be safe. So this album is just not safe. I’m talking sexy, we do have the ballads, but the lyrics are little bit riskier and edgier than anything I’ve done in the past. It’s just a different kind of flavor to this album.”

These days, Tweet is signed to Dubose Music Group, working on her third album Simply Tweet. Yesterday she released “C 4EVA”; the third of her #TweetTuesday series; it’s a hint of where her head is at in 2012.

When Diddy formed Dirty Money we knew Dawn, but who was that chick to his left with the half-shaved dome? Where did she come from? How did she fast-forward past the cheesecake runs on Making the Band and still make the big come up? Those questions were answered. But even with Kalenna’s success in Dirty Money, when they broke up, Kalenna storming stages as a solo artist wasn’t a serious thought. What would that sound like?

Yesterday, Dawn Richard visited 106 and Park to debut “Save Me From You,” the first official single from her upcoming debut album GoldenHeart. The video compliments this heartfelt ballad nicely; Dawn explained the concept of the song, during her appearance on 106 & Park, “I was going through something really, really bad and instead of me trying to keep things private, I like to give my vulnerability, make it strong, and put it out there. And I feel like there’s a lot of people who pretend to be a hero, but they really are the villains in this story. From female to dude, ya’ll can relate to that. Whether it’s your best friend, your boss, or just the person standing next to you, and I wanted to tell that story. That the hero isn’t always what you think he is or she is.”

Cool interview with Teedra Moses by Jabari from BET. They discuss how she got signed to MMG and how she feels being the only female/r&b chick on the label. Teedra writes her own songs and it's very relationship driven, Jabari asked if she draws from her own experiences. Teedra said she's single, o, so single; so it's part reality, part what she sees, splashed with a little fantasy.